Earth-directed coronal mass ejection

A coronal mass ejection is caught leaving the Sun in the general direction of
Earth on February 9, 2013 by the telescopes aboard the STEREO Ahead observatory.
Data from three telescopes are combined in this movie. The green image shows
the appearance of the Sun in the extreme-ultraviolet as seen by the EUVI
telescope, while the blue and red images are taken by the inner (COR1) and outer
(COR2) white light coronagraphs. This was a relatively slow-moving ejection,
with an estimated speed of about 500 kilometers per second, with the bulk of the
mass directed northward of Earth's orbit; it had little effect when it brushed
by Earth a few days later.